Queen Latifah did not come out

Queen Latifah clarified that her performance at a recent Lesbian & Gay Pride event in Long Beach was not her way of coming out of the closet.

“I’ve never dealt with the question of my personal life in public. It’s just not gonna happen,” Latifah told Entertainment Weekly.

The entertainment mogul has long evaded commenting on her sexuality one way or the other, while it’s often been reported that she prefers the company of women. She was once linked to celebrity fitness trainer Jeanette Jenkins and photos of the two women embracing went viral. However, Latifah still refuses to end the debate by announcing her sexual preference publicly.

Many other celebrities have performed for gay and lesbian crowds without the media assuming it was an affirmation of homosexuality; however, a few comments Latifah made onstage fueled the fire.

First she commented that she was happy to be among “her people.” Then, Latifah said, “I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time.”

However, she cleared up those statements, explaining, “When people are going through hatred and bullying, the biggest thing to fight that is love. That’s all I encouraged my audience to do that night: to share their light and share their love. Period.”

Latifah also pointed out that gay audiences and venues are fun and sometimes pay better than other events.

“To me, doing a gay pride show is one of the most fun things. My first show that paid more than $10,000 was in a gay club on New Year’s Eve in San Francisco,” she said recounting how the crowd urged rapper Tupac Shakur to remove his shirt. “He wasn’t doing that, but we had a blast in there.”